Authored by a political scientist, the study focuses on the impact of two alternative policies, "political strategy" and "service strategy," designed to deal with the problem of poverty in American society. The central concern is the effect of the policies on the poor. The service strategy assumes that the poor differ from the majority in individual deficienceis, such as unemployment; vocational training is a primary component. Political strategy assumes the poor are lacking in political power and need organizational support to represent their interests. The first analysis is of the Manpower Development and Training Act (1962) and its transformation into an antipoverty program. The second analysis is of the Economic Opportunity Act (1964), particularly Title 2, which provides funding for community action agencies. Both analyses revealed significant data gaps. The author feels that service strategy training was only partially successful, since much of the money was not put fully to use and often went to the unemployed/underemployed rather than the seriously disadvantaged. Likewise, political strategy was viewed as having limited success. Implications of the study were a need for better performance measures, systematic experimental designs, and new evaluation methods to analyze the impact of government programs. (EA)